Today’s live text updates
Why is the first Perpignan - Paris of the day at 7am? That's TOO LATE. FFS. Early trains are useful, damn it. #LongestTrainEU #CrossBorderRail
(Note all of this not for me, but for someone who might come along to film #LongestTrainEU) #CrossBorderRail
You can get from Berlin to Helsinki reliably by train and ferry in 2 days and 1 night (Berlin - Warszawa - Vilnius, night there, Vilnius - Tallinn - Helsinki)
But you cannot sensibly get from Lagos to Berlin in the same time, despite, oh, about 2000km of high speed infra to use
You *might* just do it with buses Lagos - Sevilla, and Barcelona - Perpignan, and the rest with trains, and a night in Perpignan
AAAGGGHHAHHAGAGHAHAGAHHAGHAH
Look how many EFFING BUSES there are between Barcelona and Perpignan
WHERE THERE IS A HIGH SPEED EFFING TRAIN LINE WITH 4 TRAINS A DAY EACH WAY ON THE BORDER SECTION
This is why Spain and France (and especially the border between them) make me so hopping mad. How you can spend billions and billions on new infra, and STILL not get to your destination when your trip is something a fraction more complex than Sevilla - Barcelona or Lyon - Lille
I can forgive Romania being crap
I cannot forgive France or Spain being crap
FFS Spain is such a pile of abject shit when it comes to rail timetables
Sure, the trains are fast *if and when they go*, but nothing connects properly
I am now testing #LongestTrainEU #CrossBorderRail routes on some portals like Railfinder
But this also gets interesting
Take this part
Railfinder leans so heavily towards direct trains it leaves you with a *very tight* connection in Hamburg
But change in Lund and Copenhagen in addition, and everything is much safer...
So I *think* I have an answer?
Kemijärvi - Lagos is 18 trains
To do this with normal railway websites (i.e. DB, SJ etc.) you would need 12 bookings, and there would be 9 changes where you would lose passenger rights (the other you can just take the next train)
Ticket costs
Seat 2nd class
€586.93
1st class and sleeper ÖBB, shared sleeper SJ
€1016.31
2nd class, shared sleeper SJ, mini comp ÖBB
€726.23
LOL 😂
These anomalies
Offenburg-Strasbourg
If you get a French operated train, it has 1st and 2nd class. But SNCF Connect will only sell you a 2nd class ticket, for €13,40
If you get a German operated train, it has only 2nd class seats. But DB will sell you a 1st class ticket (for €19,20) or a 2nd class ticket (for €13,20, so 20 cent cheaper)
So if you want #CrossBorderRail deluxe 1st class hope you get a French train and use a German ticket!
Way to go DSB 🤣
On your *national* website you have Hamburg ZOB listed, and that's the Zentralomnibusbahnhof (bus station) (pic 1, 2)
To get a train to Hamburg Hbf, the main station, you need to use the DSB International website (pic 3) https://www.dsb.dk/en/international/
But to Flensburg - which is in Germany - *is* on the national site. Totally makes sense (pic 4)
Text updates are auto-generated from Mastodon – follow me on Mastodon @jon@gruene.social
Some updates will also be occasionally be posted on Bluesky – follow me @jonworth.eu
Today’s introduction and summary videos
All the #CrossBorderRail daily videos are on my Peertube channel
Today’s photos
Today’s background
New borders:
None
Borders already crossed:
Kehl 🇩🇪 – Krimmeri-Meinau 🇫🇷
The direct Berlin – Paris train is not running in April, so it is back to messy routes from Berlin to Bourgogne, and crossing the border on the Offenburg – Strasbourg service, hopefully to be finally replaced by the new Régiolis trains soon.
Today’s route
The full zoomable and scrollable map, including today’s route, is on uMap here.

